The COVID-19 lockdown and curfew conditions have now been extended in Thailand until May 31.
Until this reckless decision by the government, business owners in Pattaya have been hoping the original 3-week shutdown would be ending today.
There has been an idea that customers may start returning to Pattaya for the holiday weekend, which begins on Friday, but the government has killed any notion of that.
Along with the hopes and dreams of thousands in Pattaya who now realise it is all over for them.
Since the extension was announced on Monday idle bar-workers, hotel staff, drivers, food vendors and an army of service industry staff have finally given up and are packing their belongs to leave town.
Many had already gone and only the hopeful remained. Not anymore.
Thongjan Seuppheng spent yesterday packing up her bar beer and salon business. The Surin native has been in Pattaya for 15 years and for 12 of those she successfully ran a hairdressing salon within sight of Walking Street.
Thongjan told Thai PBS she could comfortably earn 40,000 baht a day during her 12 hour daily shifts and this easily covered the 100,000 baht monthly rent and salaries for her ten members of staff.
But now her staff have given up waiting for the good times to roll back in and returned to their home villages.
Thongjan herself has packed her pick-up truck and is ready to go.
She has no idea what the future holds but says there is no point going back to her own home village as there are no customers for her there either.
She says she doesn’t know what her next move will be but for her, like so many others, the Pattaya life is finally over. – Albert Jack
